All this week on Breaking Bread, we’re going to be highlighting the numbers and the challenges that face restaurateurs and small business owners in the foodservice and hospitality sector as they try to refocus, recover and rebuild in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a recent Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada, at least 400,000 people previously employed in the Canadian foodservice sector are still out of work — that number represents half of the jobs that the sector has lost since the start of the pandemic.

Restaurants and other foodservice businesses are the fourth-largest source of private-sector jobs in this country and the industry collectively employed about 1.2 million people before the pandemic broke in March.

The organizers of West Vancouver’s annual Harmony Arts Festival — cancelled, of course, courtesy of COVID-19 — have pivoted to provide a more intimate, pared-down dining experience known as Harmony Eats.

Local independent restaurants like Savary Island Pie Company, Feast Neighbourhood Table and the Truffle House will be showcasing their fare for hungry folk along the Ambleside and Dundarave beach walks from now until September in an effort to help neighbourhood restaurants and cafes increase their capacity while providing the public with safe, open-air dining spaces.

Restaurant service will be operating daily in Millennium Park from July 12 to September 8 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Beyond simply being calm, kind and safe for our own personal wellbeing, we also must acknowledge our responsibility to extend that same level of caution and care to restaurant workers who are serving us and putting their own health and safety at risk.

In an heartfelt open letter featured on Food and Wine this past week, Deputy Editor and restaurateur Melanie Hansche details some sobering statistics about the future of independent restaurants in the US and also gives some sage advice to those who are ready, willing and able to sally forth and support their local restaurant industry by dining in once again.

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